10 Amazing Movies Made On Shockingly Small Budgets

Christopher Nolan wrote, directed and produced this film in 1998 about a young writer who follows people around in search of material. It’s hard to believe that the guy who just made the massive $165 million blockbuster Interstellar started with this small black and white thriller that cost just $6,000.

Nolan worked with 16mm film on Following just like Robert Rodriguez did for El Mariachi. The crew was extremely limited, and just about everyone involved also had day jobs and couldn’t exactly commit all their time to this movie. So even though it’s only a little over an hour long, the shoot took four full months, with filming taking place every Saturday.

Like most of these films, Nolan paid for the movie out of his own pocket, and the majority of the actors were Nolan’s friends. Since the budget was so low, they had to really make sure they didn’t waste any film stock, so every scene was rehearsed for an extremely long time so it could all be done in one take. 

Following's box office gross was $240,000, though even more notable is that it actually ended up in the Criterion Collection along with some of the best movies of all time. Considering how ridiculously limited Christopher Nolan was here, that’s a pretty astounding accomplishment.